The presidential companion : readings on the first ladies

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Bibliographic Information

The presidential companion : readings on the first ladies

edited by Robert P. Watson and Anthony J. Eksterowicz

University of South Carolina Press, c2003

  • : pbk

Available at  / 1 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Contents of Works

  • Martha Washington and the creation of the role of First Lady / Patricia Brady
  • Political parties : first ladies and social events in the formation of the Federal government / Catherine Allgor
  • Betty Ford transforms the role of First Lady / Mary Linehan
  • True women : the roles and lives of antebellum presidential wives, Sarah Polk, Margaret Taylor, Abigail Fillmore, and Jane Pierce / Elizabeth Lorelei Thacker-Estrada
  • Edith Bolling Galt Wilson : the protective steward / James S. McCallops
  • Bess W. Truman : the reluctant first lady / Raymond Frey
  • Eleanor Roosevelt : an unlikely path to political activist / Susan Roth Breitzer
  • Policy experts : congressional testimony and influence of first ladies / Colton C. Campbell and Sean E. McCluskie
  • First ladies and U.S. foreign policy / Glenn Hastedt
  • The evolution of the role and office of the First Lady : the movement toward integration with the White House office / Anthony J. Eksterowicz and Kristen Paynter
  • First ladies and policy making : crossing the public/private divide / Kay M. Knickrehm and Robin Teske
  • Copresident or codependent? : the rise and rejection of presidential couples since World World II / Gil Troy
  • Hillary's choices : the first ladyship of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the future of the office / Myra G. Gutin
  • Sharing the bully pulpit : breast cancer and First Lady Betty Ford's leadership / Mary Anne Borrelli

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Bringing together the work of notable historians, political scientists, and sociologists, this text offers a collection of essays that demonstrate the political relevance of first ladies throughout U.S. history and the dramatic expansion of their power during the 20th century. With a preface by Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff, Melanne Verveer, this anthology attempts to fill a gap in scholarship about the position of first lady and reveals the political acumen and activism of a number of the unofficial office holders. The contributors reveal how the office has grown in political influence, from Martha Washington's selection of furnishings for the presidential mansion to Hillary Rodham Clinton's leadership of the President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform. They offer chapters on presidential wives who have changed the nature of the office of first lady and which explore issues that have affected the first ladies' use of the bully pulpit. The book underscores the notion that an understanding of presidential spouses is central to the study of the American presidency. At the same time the volume dispels the myth that Eleanor Roosevelt and her successors have been the only presidential spouses to make significant public and political contributions to the nation.

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